Dyslexia and music exams

[kaffkooks]

I'm looking for advice for my DS who is 10yo and around grade 2 standard on violin. His teacher asked last year if he wanted to sit grade 1 but I said no as he was struggling at school and I wanted to focus on that. He has since been diagnosed with dyslexia and is doing much better at school with support. He can read music but we need to go slowly through the piece note by note. He is excellent at playing by ear and enjoys the string group he goes to once a week. If he decides to do music exams can he have extra time to look at the sight reading because of his dyslexia? How do we ask for adaptations to be made? He is his teacher's first pupil (she's excellent and just finished music college) so she doesn't know.

Yes, you can get extra time for sightreading and other adaptations.

You have to apply via the exam board.

eg. ABRSM: https://gb.abrsm.org/en/exam-booking/specific-needs/

Thanks, that's a really helpful link. I had tried the ABRSM website but for some reason hadn't found that.

If you go through the Trinity board and not ARBSM, you don’t have to do sight reading at all at the lower grades. You could do improvisation or musical knowledge instead. It might be a much better board for him. https://www.trinitycollege.com/qualifications/music/grade-exams/about/supporting-tests

Both Dh and ds are dyslexic. From my experience with working both with ds and other children with dyslexia, what works for one might not work for someone else. Ds struggled early on with reading music. He is now working towards Grade 8 in a woodwind instrument and 7 in piano. His sight reading whilst good is not at the standard required for those grades. Scales are also problematic at times. Extra time in a practical exam would not work for him as he finds it difficult not to rush in. We have gone with performance exams, which works for him. (He has done one exam on one instrument and three on the other. No need to do any or all of them.)

We were told by the person who did the dyslexia assessment that they would write to ABRSM if needed to give him extra time in an exam. (They would be the one to give the ‘supporting evidence’.)

This information from the British Dyslexia Association may be helpful

https://cdn.bdadyslexia.org.uk/uploads/documents/03-Reasonable-adjustments-in-music-exams.pdf?v=1614338352

My daughter had extra time for her music exams - although she wasn't diagnosed with dyslexia until she was 16 so she did most without. The dyslexia assessment included specific recommendations for music exams.

If I remember rightly, she had extra time for the scales, sight reading and aural tests. The extra time for scales was the most useful because she could repeat to herself what she was supposed to be doing. In the past she had focused on one thing and and hadn't taken in the whole instruction - so for example she would start on the right note but not really pay attention to whether she needed to play a major, harmonic or melodic minor or whether she should be slurring or using separate bows.

My dc had extra time for ABRSM music exams and grade 5 theory. All that was needed was a letter from the school SENCO and it was only one paragraph. ABRSM don't really seem to worry about giving extra time - extra time won't be advantageous unless it's really needed anyway - which in the case of your dc, it is needed.

My DD has done several music exams with Trinity. We applied for extra time for the first exam and now it is in the system it is applied each time. It is not much but I think those few seconds extra thinking time really help her. She finds memorising scales very hard, so now she does the technical exercise option for exams but still learns scales in lessons/ practice. Her sight reading is very good but she has no clue of the names of the notes.